F-100 Super Sabre 1/8th Build (70")

thenated0g

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Looking good man! Can't wait to see it fly. I can't help but think about how cool it would be to do one with a ducted fan and retracts, such a cool looking jet!

Yeah that would be cool! Assuming this goes well i want to make its "enemy" which was the mig-17 so we can chase eachother fpv. Would make a good edf, but at this size i dont know if i want to buy it lol. Edf's are cool no doubt, but the 4 minute flight times are not fun for fpv.

As far as retracts....i just dont have the locations to use retracts and putting all that weight in and not using it irritates me.
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thenated0g

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House chores this weekend so only a couple things done. I did get the callie graphics vinyl decals i ordered. Heres a couple of them. Again i decided to go with the t-38 style newer nasa color scheme. White plane with decals.
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I sanded down the spackle and covered the section under the wing. Unlike my the wing where i scraped off as much spackle as i could, this time i went extra heavy and sanded it down flush afterwards. It came out pretty nice and smooth. Definitely going heavy on the spackle again next time.
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I started working on the ailerons. I am using some balsa aileron stock. It comes with 90 corners but because of the hinges i am using it needs to be rounded so started cutting/sanding that down and thinking about what hinges to use. To give the ailerons some strength and have uniform surface for painting i am going to wrap them in the paper covering as well. I will have to weight them down along the entire length to keep them flat and true.
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F106DeltaDart

Elite member
Yeah that would be cool! Assuming this goes well i want to make its "enemy" which was the mig-17 so we can chase eachother fpv. Would make a good edf, but at this size i dont know if i want to buy it lol. Edf's are cool no doubt, but the 4 minute flight times are not fun for fpv.

As far as retracts....i just dont have the locations to use retracts and putting all that weight in and not using it irritates me.

Completely understand, still excellent work! The FPV should be great fun, especially if you have someone to dogfight with. Definitely makes sense cutting out gear if you have nowhere that they could be used. I've been blessed with a nice flying field for a while so retracts have become standard in my planes. Most of my planes wouldn't survive long off-runway though! Looking forward to seeing how this monster looks with all of the decals on!
 

thenated0g

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yeah my current flying location is great, 3 schools together in one mega school so its got lots of fields, but its all grass or sand track. No hard runway. But the grass is easy on foam. I have been looking at automotive clear coats to protect the bottom or maybe put 3 or 4 plastic sliders that stick out the bottom to take some of the dings and get some clearance.
 

thenated0g

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I was interested to see how much weight is actually added with this process of covering so i made sure to weigh everything as i was covering the balsa aileron stock. I think these are 2" by 1/4" thick. The starting weight was 45 grams and after applying glue and paper (with a half inch overlap) the "wet" weight was 72g. Now because i didn't want these to twist or warp i had to put something on top of them the entire length and this is going to slow the drying process. But this morning (8 hours drying) they had dropped to 65g but were still noticeable wet and not dried completely so i will update in a few days.

I wanted them to have a paper covering for strength and uniform painting surface with the rest of the plane.

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Also found that doing this process on a melamine surface makes cleanup extremely easy and the glued parts do not want to stick to the surface at all.
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thenated0g

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Took a little break from building. Back at it.

Wing nuts installed
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OMG what am i doing lol? This thing is huge
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Plane all leveled out (see video above)
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thenated0g

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Originally i was thinking of doing a fully moving elevator using a rod that went thru the tail. But i decided it would just be easier to do two separate elevators each with their own servos. This will also allow me to try some different mixes in the radio later as well.
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Also began mapping out where i am going to add some kite rods for strength, hatch access for radio, and where i am going to cut the canopy off. For fpv i think i will make 2 separate canopies/cockpit areas. One will be a scale'ish cockpit for line of site and i will make a second cockpit specific to fpv. That way i dont need any other access hatches for fpv on the plane. I also decided that for better or for worse i will be putting the main flight battery as far forward as i can inside the cockpit access. Usually i like to put the battery in as the last step for cg.
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Before sanding and finishing the fuselage i just need to make the holes where the elevator servos are going and mark the spot where the Vertical stabilizer is going. Still deciding on if i want a rudder or not.
 

thenated0g

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Looking great. Cant wait to see the maiden video!!

Thanks! Last night and this morning before work i got all the kite rods cut and glued into the fuse, cut the holes for the elevator servos, cut the hatch lid and hole for the radio location, and cut slots in where the horizontal and vertical stabilizer's will mount.

Now its sanding, caulking, sanding time. Maybe repeat. Than cut out the canopy area.

Probably take a little break at some point this next week as i have a few FT kits on the way i want to build.
 

thenated0g

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Added 6x 2mm kite rods in various places with low temp hot glue, cut out areas for servo's to be installed. Weight before sanding/filling/covering is 1.1kg. Current guess/estimate is 4kg range AUW when done. Given the 1,200 square inches of wing area this is pretty good.
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Fidget

Active member
Looks great! How did you spread the glue so nicely between your foam layers? Can you brush on Gorilla Glue?
 

thenated0g

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I use a silicone squeegee to spread it around. You dont need hardly any at all as it foams up.
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DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
Making great progress - ever thought of making it an EDF?

Interested to see how the sanding goes - as you said, the GG is hard but sandable and the foam is soft

Looking forward to more.

DamoRC
 

thenated0g

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It actually isnt too bad. Caulk solves a lot of problems as well. I will try and record some of the process. The wing went well, but it was mostly hot cut, not layers of GG. But we will see i guess.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
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I like to keep all those stupid credit card offers I'm not going to sign up for and expired gift cards to use as glue squeegees too
 

Fidget

Active member
Thanks Nate & rockyboy. I'm planning a project with double thickness foamboard and had been wondering about using Gorilla Glue for making the sandwich. Also thought about Tightbond II, but I'll try GG first.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
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Something to consider for large laminations - aliphatic glues like Titebond need to evaporate the water out to properly set. UHU glues like Gorilla Glue do not need to evaporate to cure. So if you are working with a large flat lamination, aliphatic glues will often still work but aren't as effective as they aren't able to evaporate as thoroughly in the middle. For an easy way to identify the type of glue you're working with, if it uses soap and water to clean up it's probably an aliphatic type. If soap and water leaves all the gunk on your hands you're working with something else :)
 

thenated0g

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Thanks Nate & rockyboy. I'm planning a project with double thickness foamboard and had been wondering about using Gorilla Glue for making the sandwich. Also thought about Tightbond II, but I'll try GG first.

About 3 years ago i built a 200% Guinea pig. 120" wingspan. Originally, at the beginning, i was laminating 2 layers of dollar tree foam board together. This is time consuming, but cheap and pretty easy. Eventually i found some 1/2 inch black foam board at around $5 a sheet on amazon and that was way easier to use. I finished with that and built a 200% FT-22 out of it as well.

http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?21568-HUJ-G-191-(ish)-FT-Guinea-Pig-build-log